Craig's Recipes

Old-Fashioned Baked Cheesecake

This is an old-fashioned baked cheesecake. It is very rich and rather dense, but quite delicious. It puts purchased cheesecakes to shame.

Very Important: Make sure that all your ingredients are room temperature! You will over-beat your batter trying to get cream cheese lumps beaten out if your cream cheese or other ingredients are at too low a temperature.

I leave my ingredients, cream cheese, eggs, sour cream, and heavy cream, out on the kitchen counter over-night.

For this cake, you will need a 9-inch non-stick spring-form pan.

Ingredients for Crust

1½ cups graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup sugar

6 Tablespoons butter, melted

Pinch of salt

Ingredients for Filling

24 ounces cream cheese, *see note

1 3/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 cups sour cream

1 cup heavy cream

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest, freshly grated

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put your Spring-Form Pan Together Correctly

You need a 9-inch spring form pan for this cheesecake. When you put the bottom of your pan into the sides, the center of the bottom of the pan should be higher than the edges. If it is not, then you put the bottom in upside-down.

You will need Parchment paper (not wax paper), folded into a collar for lining the inside of your baking pan (29-inches long and 3½-inches high)

Preparing the Dish

1. Make the graham cracker crust: Combine the first four ingredients for the crust and press over the bottom of your 9 inch spring form pan. Put this in the freezer.
2. A good KitchenAid® mixer [amazon.com] will work well for this: Beat cream cheese briefly to loosen. Add sugar, mix until just combined.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition, until combined.
4. Gently mix in the remaining ingredients. Do not over-mix. You want to avoid excess air in the batter. Use a spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of your mixing bowl.
5. Remove the cake pan from the freezer and butter the insides of the pan. Put the parchment collar inside, pressing it against the buttered sides so it sticks.
6. Pour your batter into the pan. Tap the pan on the counter to bring any bubbles to the surface. Pop bubbles that remain using a knife tip.
7. Place the spring-form pan on a sheet pan. Bake at 350°F for one hour. Turn the oven off and let the cake cool in the oven over night without opening the oven door.
8. Remove from the oven and place in the refrigerator to cool and set. Do not try to remove the cheesecake from the pan, or serve, before the cake has been in the refrigerator over-night, and is well chilled.
9. When ready to serve, remove from the fridge. Wait 10 minutes while the butter lining the pan warms a bit and then gently remove the parchment collar. You may then work a butter knive around the sides of the pan, before unspringing and removing the outside ring of the pan. To remove the bottom of the spring-form pan, warm the bottom of the pan briefly on the stove so it warms the butter in the bottom crust. The cake should slide off the bottom of the pan and onto your serving dish easily.
10. Decorate the top with fresh strawberries, or red raspberries rolled in sugar

Notes:

• The cream cheese should be Philadelphia brand. Three 8 ounce packages.